possibility of its being refuted. Do you understand?"

For a moment William Roper looked disappointed. He had looked to become
famous that very day. But he realized his great importance in the affair,
and his face cleared.

"I understands, sir," he said with a dark solemnity.

"Not a word," said Mr. Flexen yet more impressively.




CHAPTER VIII


That morning Olivia went to meet Grey in a mood very different from that
of the afternoon before. Then she had moved on light feet, in high
spirits, expectant, even excited. She had not known what was coming, but
the prospect had been full of possibilities; and, thanks to the sudden
appearance of the cat Melchisidec at the crucial moment, she had not been
disappointed. Today she would have gone to meet the man who loved her in
yet higher spirits, for there is no blinking the fact that she was wholly
unable to grieve for her husband. He had with such thoroughness
extirpated the girlish fondness she had felt for him when she married
him, that she could not without hypocrisy make even a show of grieving
for him. His death had merely removed the barrier between her and the man
she loved.

But today she did not go to her tryst in spirits higher for the removal